Baseball In The Daytime: 8-29-07

During this exciting week of baseball, when so many close divisional races are being contested, we get a few more afternoon games. On deck today are four matchups.

Batting leadoff are the Nationals and Dodgers, at 1:10 Mountain. I suppose you could say that L.A. is still in the playoff picture--they've won three straight and sit four and a half back in the division and three and a half in the wild card chase. Everyone's talking about how the addition of fat sweaty David Wells is reenergizing the team. Today, they send fat sweaty Brad Penny into battle versus Washington's Shawn Hill, whose weight and levels of perspiration are closer to normal levels. XM 185 and DTV 734 are your satellite stations of choice.

At 1:35, on XM 179 (no TV), Frank Thomas' last two employers take the field to see who's better. Roy Halladay represents the Blue Jays, while Lenny DiNardo flies the flag of the host Athletics. Halladay is merely having another excellent season, now that his midseason appendix removal has healed.

Same time, different channels (XM 188 and DTV 734) for the Rockies and Giants. Colorado is trying as hard as possible to blow it here, having dropped the last two to the woeful G-Men. Although they haven't lost any ground in the NL West (still 6 1/2 out), they're falling further behind wild-card leading San Diego and, let's be honest, it's all over for the Purple Warriors. Nice effort though. Jeff Francis gets the ball opposite Noah Lowry in a showdown of precocious lefthanders.

And finally, our cleanup game is the best of the bunch. The Angels and Mariners finish their series in Seattle with a getaway game at 2:35, and Los Anaheim is on the precipice of a sweep. Jered Weaver starts for the Bloods after his Crip brother Jeff imploded on the mound last night. The Mariners division deficit was expanded to four, their wild card lead trimmed to one, and they turn to staff ace Felix Hernandez this afternoon. Experience the drama on XM 178, DTV 736 (standard) and 731 (hi-def). Cheers!